Cisco challenges Microsoft-Skype deal in EU court

By eSchool News Staff

February 16th, 2012

Cisco said Feb. 15 that it is challenging Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype in a European Union court and asking European Commission officials to ensure that Microsoft does not block other video calling services from its Windows platform, PCMag.com reports. “Imagine how difficult it would be if you were limited to calling people who only use the same carrier or if your phone could only call certain brands and not others,” Martin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Business Group, wrote in an official blog post. “Cisco wants to avoid this future for video communications, and therefore today appealed the European Commission’s approval of the Microsoft/Skype merger to the General Court of the European Union.”